Handel Out With Radio Ad In GA Senate Race

Karen Handel isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet in her efforts to define her role – and that of the Congressmen she’s running against. She’s out with the first radio ad of the campaign which will begin airing tonight in Atlanta on WSB and in Savannah and Athens – coincidentally home to the three Congressmen in this race.

Actually, what Mrs. Handel is advocating IS to give Congressional staff “special” treatment.

Currently, staffers receive an employer contribution from Congress (just as any of us in professional jobs probably do) and participate in the federal employee health system. Republican members in the House (e.g. the ones she keeps trying to compare herself favorably against) decided to call the bluff of the Congressional Democrats who were pushing the exchanges and ask them to go on the exchanges. That’s how we got to where they’ll be in 2014. As the language in the ACA didn’t specify any level of employer contribution (that only is spelled out for the federal system that all other federal, non-DOD employees use), the President stepped in and assured Congressional staffers that they wouldn’t lose health benefits entirely. Republican staffers are still being screwed by being forced on to the exchanges with no idea how badly they’ll suck, but it is hard to say they shouldn’t be allowed to get the same health benefits they’ve always received, were part of their initial employment agreement, and would get if they were in virtually any other comparable government or private sector job.

It is sad that the best Karen Handel can do to sell herself to Georgia is to twist the facts to a degree that is borderline dishonest, but that seems par for the course based on her last two campaigns. Her general campaign philosophy is apparently “vote for me, all the other guys suck!” She’s certainly not Senate material as that won’t be very successful on that side of the capitol for Karen or for Georgians.

It is also worth noting that Paul Broun has been perpetuating this same myth despite obviously knowing better since he and his staff are on that system.

You do realize a lot of poor schmucks in the private sector will be forced onto exchanges with no subsidy or will have their jobs cut to less than 30 hours per week and thus have no coverage at all unless somehow they or the taxpayers pay for it, but in reality they will be uninsured. So maybe federal employment ain’t so bad after all. I have the solution: allow all you government freeloaders 24 hours to vacate the DC environs and then nuke it.

Many probably will. The ones having their hours cut were probably never receiving health benefits to begin with.

I never said this isn’t a bad law. That said, is it your opinion that because some employees are going to be dumped on the exchanges with no contribution that all Congressional staffers (including the ones who have been fighting against the ACA for years now) should essentially receive a 10k+ pay cut? OK, that’s great, but over half of them would leave immediately and take jobs that pay more and provide benefits. They’ll probably be disproportionately Republican, too, so you’ve just weakened the GOP operations in Congress. These are by and large intelligent people with college degrees, not guys and girls making cheese biscuits at Red Lobster.

Ideally, health care shouldn’t be tied to employment. I’d rather see the employer tax credits eliminated and a true open market on health plans. But that’s not what we’ve got, so we have to deal with it. To be competitive for quality employees, the government (including Congress) has to provide benefits. Unfortunately, folks like you buy into stupid, populist “nuke DC”- style arguments, so we get Karen Handel basing her entire campaign on distortions of the truth.

Yes, we all know that quote. Are you saying Congress should be disbanded? That certainly isn’t Karen Handel’s position given that she’s running to be a member of the Senate. Nor was it Ronald Reagan’s take (I assume) because he served as a member of the United States government. I never heard him calling for eliminating benefits for his White House staffers purely out of spite. Did you?

Huh? My boss? I don’t work for the guy nor did I ever even consider voting for him

Are you capable of discussing the issue at hand? Or are you just going to answer with random quotes and unfounded attacks? I never said a word about “trust in government”. All I did was point out how a Senate candidate was being a borderline liar.